Mark commented: “The overall experience of winning a gold medal for both John shannon and I, was an overwhelming feeling and a huge honour for us.

“Walking out into the final against St Pat’s was a nerve racking, yet the most exciting feeling for us both, as we felt we were in with a good chance of winning the gold.

“When the whistle blew, we had won the Open Championship and would be recieving a world gold medal. Our hearts were overwhelmed with happiness, it made all our hard work training, traveling 400 miles a week to train and all the weight loss we put in to get to this point worthwhile.”